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You have been amazing to me the past 3 1/2 years. I got you as a pup, when I was in need of friendship. You became my companion, my best friend, and my little girl. You have been through a broken bone, poking, prodding, radiation, medication, and surgery. But in the end we lost, and now it's time to say goodbye.

To everyone that has helped us over the years financially, thank you so much. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to give Zoey the past two years of her life, and that life was well spent. Zoey has gone to Canada, numerous camping trips on the north shore, adventures on road trips, and has made so many faces smile in the world.

I love you so much Zoey, and I hope someday to see you on whatever other side there is for us in death.

The following are photos from the time we got Zoey as a pup, until our final walks.

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I love spontanious trips. Some of the best adventures I have ever had have been set in motion by the words, "hey, want to go on a road trip?" One time it was a week in advance, and another time it was a casual mention of a road trip a year in advance.

The case with this trip came from how much stress we were carrying from Zoey's cancer, and the nature fix that had been absent in our lives for some time. At this point Zoey had been 2-3 weeks past surgery and her sutures were looking pretty great. Anna had time off work already, and with some help from the amazing folks over at Parka to cover some of my work, we were able to make this trip happen.

We drove most of the way around Lake Superior. From the North shore of Minnnesota, to the actual north shore of Superior in Ontario, and then down into Michigan. Unfortunately we didn't have time to travel closer to the shore through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or Northern Wisconsin. Next time!

It's hard to believe that one week has already passed by. The first hardship was getting used to the site of Zoey only having one eye, but by the end of the day we had gotten pretty comfortable with the fact. During the first night I think I woke up about every hour when she would sneeze - each time I would get out of bed to make sure her stitches hadn't broke, or that there wasn't more blood than what was to be expected while her incisions were healing. Luckily Anna and I both had days off after the procedure, so it was nice to stay at home and make sure the first steps to recovery started smoothly.

Zoeys mood is peppy as ever. She plays, she gets excited, and is still so affectionate. Today (7/24) was her first outing away from the house, unfortunately I wasn't around for it, but Anna told me she was so happy to be outside on an adventure again. I got to see her in the evening and snap some photos.

We learned tonight that the tumor was an osteosarcoma (bone tumor), and that with the surgical removal we just went through, they follow up with chemotherapy for best results. The U of M talked with us over the phone about this, and brought up the future and what the expected life span is after the treatment. They predict 12-18 months for the type of tumor Zoey has, including chemo. We meet with oncology again on August 12th to move forward with treatment, and get her stitches removed.